Tuesday, September 24, 2013

So…are you ready? Are you getting psyched for Halloween? Hmmmm??????????

To get you into spooky-mode al la
Enchanticals, here’s a little tale I wrote*…

Imagine this…

It is one of those damp and dreary, foggy drizzly
nights in late October. You are alone and this is confirmed when you look
around you see no one else outside on the street. A shutter shakes your entire
body.

You are chilled to the bone due to the
weather, but also by the fact that it seems this month, unlike the other prior
nine months of the year, have speeded up.

All Hallow’s Eve is almost here. In the
deepest part of your soul, your essence, you can feel that portal, which will
have fully opened on All Hallow’s Eve, turning ever so slowly; but turning
nonetheless. Your soul remembers from ancient times when demons and devils
walked openly among the humans. Terror
fills your mind and you shake your head, trying to erase that ancient memory.

An icy chill climbs up your spine from its
base to your neck, goose bumps cover your arms, and perspiration forms on your
forehead. You know, that portal will be fully opened on All Hallow’s Eve and
good spirits, evil spirits, devils, and demons will pass through it from The
Other Side and enter this world… the world of the living.

And, when that night is spent and the portal
slowly begins to close, the good spirits will return Home, the evil ones will
be pulled roughly back to Hell, as will some of the demons. But… some of the
demons with great powers and a mission will remain here among the living.

You feel the uncontrollable urge to start
running, but your legs fail you. They will not move. Panic is flooding your
mind. Memories from millions of years long past flood your brain. You want to
hide, but you know that is pointless. If one for those remaining demons has
your name and is looking for you, there is no where you can hide… No one to ask
for help…

All the prayers you learned as a child and
have not said in decades rush to the front of your mind. Out loud you chant
over and over, “Please, Lord, not me” “Please, Lord, not me.”

Hi, All! Halloween is in full swing at Enchanticals at Etsy. Lots of haunted and spooky creations.

Scared yet? Ha! there is more...

Now these two Angels have this tale to share with you…

“A Little Tale”…

Yep…there they are... the two Angels of Death…together…

One is the good one who takes you Home to Paradise and the other, well, he’s
the evil one who drags his souls, begging, kicking and screaming, to the
putrid, hot, overcrowded fires of Hell for eternity.

The two have known each other for eons. They aren’t friends because they have
no interests in common, except one. Instead of waiting, as they should, at the
death beads of the very sick or at accident scene to take the person’s soul
when he/she dies, they hang out together at the cemetery, making small talk,
telling jokes, and passing the time. They’re lazy. And, this laziness is what
they have in common.

Both figure it’s stupid to chase around from location to location to get their
souls and take them to their eternal destination, when they can just wait at
the grave site and have the souls delivered to them, so to speak. But, if you
think about it, they’re cruel, as well as lazy.

The dead person can’t get free of his or her physical body without the
Angel of Death taking their soul. Imagine how scary it is for that dead
one…having to wait.* You’d expect that of the evil Angel of Death, but the good
one? Ahh… the duality of nature…even within good and evil. Nonetheless, these
two don’t care.

So, here they stand together again…Yin and Yang,
good and evil…waiting for the next soul to arrive at the cemetery to see which
one of them will get the new arrival.
*This is a fantasy story with fantasy statements; it is NOT to be taken as true
or real.

Friday, August 23, 2013

Hi, All! Well, here it is August 23, 2013 and I have not yet revamped my blog. Fear you say? Nope. Lazy? Nope.My love, my heart, my BFF, and fiance, Phillipe, died from pancreatic cancer. No warning. One day he was here and then, shortly, the Angel of Death took him.He was French... from Paris, France. When he was dying, we went home to Paris so he could die there in his parents' estate. He did not even want to go to his own estate.

So, you see... the road has been rough, but I am enchanted once again, my creativity is in full swing, and I know he is with me. I am creating like crazy. Thank you, my dear followers, for not leaving me.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Announcement!!!!!

Enchanticals'
blog is going to be having a major overhaul. As you, my enchanted followers,
may have noticed, I have not blogged for awhile.

I have
a year's worth of posts ready to go with tons of photos, but, due to this
format, I have writer's blog block. I am a writer, but the format of this blog,
well, it makes me freeze in my tracks!

If I
try to post something, after I preview it and post it, everything else is gone
(Really! Really!). Or the spacing is so off or...

It then
takes me 3 hours to rebuild it. The stress and frustration is enough to make
even me, Ms. Enchanted, no longer feeling enchanted.

I want
to blog so badly. I want to involve all of you. I want us to have fun.

So, I
decided the other evening, when sitting and discussing it with the
little wizard, who lives under the plumbago bush in my backyard, that it is
time for a major overhaul. He agreed, after I spent an hour trying to make him understand
what a blog is and why it is so much fun. Ha! Wizards. Who gets them?

He then
gave me a magic potion to drink to allow me to change it. I have not
taken it yet. Don’t tell him, but I think chocolate and tea would have been
better. Ha!

I
appreciate all you hanging with me, waiting... Well, hang on a bit longer, PLEASE.
This blog is going to be smokin'. We are going to have fun.

I have
so many new creations, ideas for this blog, contests planned, and so much more.
I want this to be an interactive blog where you can promote your stuff,
creations, photos, lives or whatever, be featured, and be a real part of
Enchanticals.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

All Hallow’s Eve is the one day of the year when the portal
between this world and the world of the dead opens and… the dead; both good and
evil can walk once again among us, the living.

The Wheel of the Year turns slowly all year, going from spring
to summer to autumn and to winter. And, in between, finally, when the sun sets
on October 31st, the portal is opened and the spirits pass through.
They can run free, do as what they wish, go where they want, and visit those
they left behind.

Have you ever wondered what the spirits do on The Other Side
before the portal opens? They have, after all, waited all year for this one
night.

Well, just like they were when living, the spirits on The Other
Side are all different. Some line up and wait to be the first ones out the
portal. They are very much like the
living who on the day after Thanksgiving, line up at 2 o’clock am for a 4
o’clock am opening of their store of choice.

Others,
limber up so that they can take full advantage of “being alive again”.

Still others, well, they catch some ZZZs so that they have
plenty of energy to frolic, create havoc, haunt or visit loved ones. And, some
even get themselves all fixed up so they look their best.

So, this All Hallow’s Eve, when the sun goes down, if you,
the living, have done bad deeds to someone who has died and may return, I
recommend that you watch your backs. You
never know what lies in wait for you.

The dead don’t have much time from sundown to sunrise, so
they will have their plans in order and will waste no time.

In some cases, some of the dead, the truly evil ones, do not
return to the portal and pass back through. They remain here. It is best to be
vigilant each night as you go out or even as you stay inside your home. Until
those evil spirits are forced back to The Other Side, they will be among us,
the living.

Have a safe and fun Halloween or All Hallow’s Eve.

************************************

VERY IMPORTANT ALERT!!!!!

The two weeks and the week after Halloween or All Hallow’s
Eve are the most dangerous for black, black and white, and Tortie cats/kitties.

So, PLEASE, do NOT let your babies out during this time
period. Keep your eyes on them! Many cats/kitties disappear, are tortured,
killed, and other unspeakable things are done to them.

Responsible cat rescue groups do not adopt out black
cats/kitties during the entire month of October!

Please, be loving, caring, and responsible and protect your
black, black and white, and Tortie cats/kitties.

About Me

“Between the worlds of men and make believe I
can be found.”
~Dan Fogelberg

Hello. I am Marsha J. West, creator of Enchanticals.

I created the word Enchanticals. Enchanticals describes my creations and the
imaginary place which I also created, where my creations first reside before
being listed at my Etsy shop, aptly named Enchanticals.

Enchanticals is where enchantment resides…along with fantasy, imagination,
whimsy, creativity, magic, mystery, and lore. Enchantment is always afoot at
Enchanticals because enchantment cannot be harnessed, has no rules, and is
everywhere.

I am a miniaturist, artist, writer, and poet. My poetry includes haikus. I am
completing a series of children’s books.

**************************
Published and Featured:

Enchanticals has been featured and continues to be featured in many place
online, in magazines, blogs, Etsy team blogs and Treasuries, as well as many
other miniature and artistic spots. I have listed just these…

I am a miniaturist, artist, writer, and poet. I am/was gifted with both a sense
of wonder and curiosity, as well as a rich imagination that knows no bounds. My
late parents encouraged and instilled in my sister and me a desire to learn all
that we could from all sources available….the written, visual, spoke; to seek;
to question; to think broadly and out of the box; to learn other cultures,
customs, and make friends of every culture and creed; to create; be ourselves;
think for ourselves, and, most of all, to imagine. For from imagination with
action added to it for fuel, one can create boundlessly.

My
personality is a bit like yin and yang. I love nature, sunlight, sunny days,
animals, flowers, meadows, butterflies (my Sacred Power Animal), and colors. But,
my yin, so to speak, side, loves the night, the moon, grey overcast skies,
rain, barren trees, melancholy, cold winds blowing, emptiness, fog, and myste.
This yin yang personality of mine enhances what I create. When I am in a Yang
mode, I create fairy, elemental, and the like creations and when Yin, I love to
make spooky, dark, vampires, and the like.

As
an artist, I create in various mediums. However, my preference and specialty
are predominantly in 1:12th or miniature dollhouse scale…miniature items, but
especially furniture, altered and/or made by me. I furnish them completely with
one-of-a-kind, handmade, detailed, and realistic looking items made from nature
and found objects.

Each
creation is based upon a central theme or character and each altered found
object created for that piece supports the main theme.

My
themes and characters for my creations run the gamut…from enchanted to fantasy
to whimsy to fairytale to wizard to horror/spooky to realism. These themes do
not have a season or Holiday associated with them; I create them year round.
For example, spooky…spooky/haunted are not just for Halloween, but rather exist
in my enchanted world the entire year.

Speaking
of “spooky”…my spooky creations are scary, sometimes a bit ghoulish, and may
give you a bit of a chill. But, they are always infused with a dab and a dash
of whimsy. My spooky is devoid of evil, harm, cruelty, and hate to and for
others. Spooky is, to me, is fun fantasy.

I
make my creations one at a time… from start to finish. There is no assembly
line in my workshop. No elves either. For this reason, each piece is truly
one-of a-kind. I keep no written “recipes” for the colors I use nor written
instructions for the any of items I create. Each piece is from or includes
nature or is created out of found objects I have available at the time. Thus,
none of my finished pieces can be duplicated.

For
each individual creation, I specifically write an original story entitled, “A
Little Tale”. My little tales are fables, some with a moral, which either recounts
the personal life history of the previous “owner” of the piece of furniture or
the origin, history or mystery surrounding the miniature item I created. My
little tales are a way for me to bring my creations to life for the audience
and also to draw them into and become part of, not only the items created, but
also my enchanted little world.

My
goal with each of my creations are to make them enjoyable useable works of art;
to enchant, surprise, and delight the audience; to challenge the audience to
use their imagination to discover the unique and creative pieces made from
found objects; and to feel amazement and wonder at how the original purpose of
each found object has changed and become something else entirely.